I've been to Vegas twice. I'm a small time gambler, but the first time I made about $60. Played craps, blackjack, and poker. Of the three I was most successful in poker (which is really not gambling if your opponents are dumb) , then craps, and I lost a bunch of money playing blackjack.

Second time, I lost $200 playing mostly blackjack and craps.

I've played a casino, two cruise ships, and online poker, and won money every time I played craps.

I do pretty OK with craps. I've made more money with craps than lost. Blackjack sucks balls, it's too hard to card count and know what you're doing, you have to play perfect, and you have to stay sober the whole time (and where's the fun in that, you're in friggin Vegas).

Bet the pass line and put money behind your pass bet. All money behind the line is even money. If you want to be a whale, go to Casino Royale and put 20x odds on craps bet line (they reduced it from 100x odds, it used to be the best place to play craps in all of Vegas).

Poker is a skill game. If you're skilled, play poker. If you want to gamble, play craps. Just don't do any of those stupid doubling your money things.

A friend and I went to Vegas for my 21st birthday. At 12:01AM on my birthday, I hit a craps table at Mandalay Bay. Had no idea what I was doing, but everyone there was so excited that it was my birthday I seemed to be doing pretty damn good and winning some money. Walked off the craps table about $200 ahead.

Then I went to the Luxor and lost it all. Haven't touched that place since.

Then I got really drunk playing Blackjack until 3AM at another casino. There was a Russian guy next to me who kept giving me money to play hands because I was apparently a good luck charm for him. Ended up hitting Blackjack once, and immediately puked in a trashcan. Dealer asked if I was okay, I said yep. Hit another Blackjack and immediately puked again. That's when the pit boss came by and sent me to time-out in my room until I sobered up. All I remember was walking away and hearing the Russian guy argue with the pit boss that they were kicking out his good luck charm.

Betting against the house guarantees you will lose over the long run. If you do not lose over the long run, the casino will accuse you of cheating and sue you. So there really is no point whatsoever in visiting a casino, unless you just enjoy watching desperate people take losses they can't afford.

Marcus Aurelius:Betting against the house guarantees you will lose over the long run. If you do not lose over the long run, the casino will accuse you of cheating and sue you. So there really is no point whatsoever in visiting a casino, unless you just enjoy watching desperate people take losses they can't afford.

What you do is count cards (but not too well) for a little bit at each casino. The point is to make just enough at each place to wind up with a killing yet still fly under the radar.

/do pretty well just remembering how many big and little cards have been played

Marcus Aurelius:Betting against the house guarantees you will lose over the long run. If you do not lose over the long run, the casino will accuse you of cheating and sue you. So there really is no point whatsoever in visiting a casino, unless you just enjoy watching desperate people take losses they can't afford.

I have friends who just consider it entertainment money for a night out. In Vegas, you're generally getting free drinks, so if you limit yourself to $100 or something, it's not that much different than going out to a bar, and entertainment is included.

If you can't stop yourself from spending more than you planned though, then you're screwed, and gambling probably shouldn't be your entertainment of choice.

Of course streaks are real. They are just unpredictable and unpredictive, and therefore useless. If you just threw 6 heads in a row with a fair coin what are the chances that you throw tails next? Still 50/50.

Only really played craps a few times. Was at a table where a girl rolled for 45 mins before she crapped out. I was playing with red and green and walked away with about $4,000. Old guy next to me was playing with blacks. I only assume he made $40,000-$50,000.The floor was going NUTS after about 10 mins. People were trying there best to get on the table, but there was not even elbow room left at that point.(Went home with $800. Gave the rest back to the house and strippers.)

Marcus Aurelius:Betting against the house guarantees you will lose over the long run. If you do not lose over the long run, the casino will accuse you of cheating and sue you. So there really is no point whatsoever in visiting a casino, unless you just enjoy watching desperate people take losses they can't afford.

Gambling is fun sometimes. I've enjoyed it since I was 23 or so. Now I'm 48. I think I've walked through the door to a casino maybe 10-12 times in 25 years. Ponies maybe half a dozen times. I don't doubt I'm upside down but the amount would be utterly insignificant over that time period. I've probably blown five times that amount on shiat movies and bad restaurants. YMMV of course.

Every time I go to the casino, I play craps ($10 min) with a $100 bankroll. I play the minimum on the passline, match the bet behind the passline, and play the field if the point is a 5, 6 or 8 (that last part is just an illogical personal habit). With very, very few exceptions, I either break even, or leave a couple hundred bucks ahead. And, really, breaking even is really coming out ahead, if you count in comp'ed drinks.

Aside from video poker, craps has the best odds in the entire casino if you play it right. I guess you're technically supposed to max out your odds bet, but, yeah, I can't exactly afford to put a hundred dollars on a single roll.

Bareefer Obonghit:Bet the don't pass line in craps, run a 3 point don't come molly system. You're essentially betting everyone else will lose, so be prepared for anger but f*ck them, they could bet with the house, too.

Oh I loathe people like you. It's typically about a 150 year old little Asian dude that will shuffle up and drop the mattress on the don't come. He doubles up and then slinks away into the night with his ill gotten gains. In my mind he ends up getting a train run on him by the dumpster behind the Piggily Wiggily and slowly bleeds to death from the massive rectal tearing.

This is fairly basic statistics n stuff. You`ll get bunches of good numbers and bunches of bad numbers and then mixes in various proportions (but nobody brags about those `Oh yeah, it`s been average for ages`)

No, you remember the blocks of wins and the blocks of losses (but less so)

Past performance can`t usually be used to predict future results though.

SirDigbyChickenCaesar:Bareefer Obonghit: Bet the don't pass line in craps, run a 3 point don't come molly system. You're essentially betting everyone else will lose, so be prepared for anger but f*ck them, they could bet with the house, too.

Oh I loathe people like you. It's typically about a 150 year old little Asian dude that will shuffle up and drop the mattress on the don't come. He doubles up and then slinks away into the night with his ill gotten gains. In my mind he ends up getting a train run on him by the dumpster behind the Piggily Wiggily and slowly bleeds to death from the massive rectal tearing.

SirDigbyChickenCaesar:Bareefer Obonghit: Bet the don't pass line in craps, run a 3 point don't come molly system. You're essentially betting everyone else will lose, so be prepared for anger but f*ck them, they could bet with the house, too.

Oh I loathe people like you. It's typically about a 150 year old little Asian dude that will shuffle up and drop the mattress on the don't come. He doubles up and then slinks away into the night with his ill gotten gains. In my mind he ends up getting a train run on him by the dumpster behind the Piggily Wiggily and slowly bleeds to death from the massive rectal tearing.

I don't mind the guy who bets don't-pass, who just kind of keeps his head down and nonchalantly rakes his winnings in. Yeah, he's benefiting from my losing money, but at least he's not being a dick about it.

What I can't stand is the loudmouth, usually a drunk-ass college-aged kid, who yells out "WOOOO!" when he wins on don't-pass and then expects the people beside him to high five him.

MagicianNamedGob:Of course streaks are real. They are just unpredictable and unpredictive, and therefore useless. If you just threw 6 heads in a row with a fair coin what are the chances that you throw tails next? Still 50/50.

Even if you have a system, (which you don't) there isn't a game in existence that will give you even odds. No, I've never bought a lottery ticket in my life.

/csb, i'll go away so you kids can have fun

tsb (true story bro): video poker actually has odds slightly in the favor of the player, if played optimally. Most people, though, A) don't play optimally, as it involves seemingly-counterintuitive plays like throwing away small, but winning hands; and B) can't afford to play long enough for the odds to really play out.

Marcus Aurelius:Betting against the house guarantees you will lose over the long run.

not true, if you include comps in winnings

which is where roulette comes into play - slow, you can throw big bets out there spread all over the board and generally break even, and they'll comp you as if you were playing the same bet/hand in blackjack

CalvinMorallis:tsb (true story bro): video poker actually has odds slightly in the favor of the player, if played optimally. Most people, though, A) don't play optimally, as it involves seemingly-counterintuitive plays like throwing away small, but winning hands; and B) can't afford to play long enough for the odds to really play out.

This is not universally true.

It depends on the pay out of certain hands, which varies from machine to machine.

Betting on Floyd mayweather is a pretty safe bet, but you have to pay 10-1.

Exactly; all they're counting in the article is win/loss. Basically, they're suggesting that people on a winning streak tend to bet favorites more often than people on losing streaks. Obviously, that doesn't mean they're gambling any better.

Poker is the only game to play at a casino if you are looking to actually win over the long term, though. It's the only game where you can influence the odds and your opponent's strategy: every other game is statistically guaranteed to lose you money in the long term because the odds and/or house strategy are fixed. If the odds weren't against you in the long run, the casino would lose money overall, and would cease to exist. Casinos make money in poker by basically charging rent or taxes (5% or so, and usually with a max)... much more honest than the oh-so-carefully-balanced-but-slightly-tilted odds the rest of the games are, IMO.

The worst are the "extras" they have on the table... like blackjack having a spot to play "poker bets" where you get paid if the dealer's upcard and your two cards form a poker hand. They all have worse odds than the base game does.

"Hey, we aren't making enough money on these tables...""I know, lets add extra prop bets that have worse odds, but give them exciting names!"

Take that to the extreme, and that's how a craps table got to be as large at it is.

I have been to Reno about a dozen times. I quit going after 2004, I think, because they started paying out in tickets instead of coins. I only played certain type of dollar slots. I came out ahead gambling every time. However if I counted the gas, food and hotel at Reno and motels during the trip there, I was probably $300 down.

mongbiohazard:MagicianNamedGob: Of course streaks are real. They are just unpredictable and unpredictive, and therefore useless. If you just threw 6 heads in a row with a fair coin what are the chances that you throw tails next? Still 50/50.

As we say in D&D - the dice have no memory.

No, but they do have bias and with a file you can shave the dice such that you can introduce bias.

Man Fark is so fortunate. We've got all the biggest penises in the world, all the people who have zero debt and fantastic credit, all the people with 150+ IQs, and today I learned we also have all the people who never lose when they're gambling. What an amazing coincidence that all those statistical anamolies happen to frequent the same site.

My brother works behind the scenes at Caesar's LV and is a semi-professional gambler. He told me that he was heavily influenced by 3 statistical books ages ago that greatly bumped his percentages. I wish I could remember those titles right now. Anyways according to him poker is really the only game with any skill to it and the more skilled you are the more you will win. He loves when the rodeo comes to town. And absolutely hates it when a clueless newbie screws up hand after hand in tournaments. Dumb asses are the bane to a pros game.

One night we were sitting a casino bar, I'm playing video poker and getting free drinks, he pays for his drinks citing something about statistics again. Since I'm not much of a gambler and more of a drinker I asked which table games I should play. He mention black jack and ma jong as having a nice slow losing of your money if you bet reasonably well. A little later he pays his bar tab and I cash out the $80 I had just won at video poker while talking.

Slaves2Darkness:mongbiohazard: MagicianNamedGob: Of course streaks are real. They are just unpredictable and unpredictive, and therefore useless. If you just threw 6 heads in a row with a fair coin what are the chances that you throw tails next? Still 50/50.

As we say in D&D - the dice have no memory.

No, but they do have bias and with a file you can shave the dice such that you can introduce bias.